Go4Long wrote:I'll be interested to see what sort of paint scheme shows up on the Rafales...the White Tiger paint was already peeling off the bottom at Yeovilton last year.

Would be cool if so, but I think that was the exception rather than the rule. Most of the l'Aeronavale Rafale Ms that have graced Yeovilton have been standard. The White Tiger was because the unit's base hosted this year's NTM. They may have a tiger scheme next year, and that jet may be sent (because why not show off your painted jet if you've got one!), but it's probably reasonable not to expect any special scheme. Happy to be wrong, of course.

Digressing slightly, it's not really to do with the "scheme" or not, but one of the charms of the Rafale M pairing is that they have a very "operational" feel about their bombastic show. The display is a bit rough around the edges in a chaotic and bonkers way, but has so much more character and is that much richer because of it. The noted story of how the French Navy worked-up their display one year whilst flying from their aircraft carrier coming home from deployment is what adds part of the charm. Most other naval air arms, including our own would (probably rightly) just say that they can't commit pilots/assets for a flypast. Instead, the French Navy are literally like "yeah sure, we'll practice our display from our carrier whilst we sail home" is really endearing to me.

A little snippet from an email sent today to last year's grandstand ticket holders:

Finally the Commando Assault – due to operational commitments and the upgrade programme on the Merlin we could not do our famous end to Air Day last year. We had numerous comments on our general public survey so we know it was greatly missed. Therefore the Flying Display Director is already looking at putting together another set piece to end the show – watch out for further information in due course.